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Congress Hopeful Condemns NSA Surveillance

HONG KONG – 2013: (EDITOR’S NOTE: ONLY AVAILABLE TO NEWS ORGANISATIONS AND NOT FOR ENTERTAINMENT USE) In this handout photo provided by The Guardian, Edward Snowden speaks during an interview in Hong Kong. Snowden, a 29-year-old former technical assistant for the CIA, revealed details of top-secret surveillance conducted by the United States’ National Security Agency regarding telecom data. (Photo by The Guardian via Getty Images)

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Clarke told the crowd that recent leaks by Edward Snowden about the spying by the NSA shows the government is going too far in its efforts to prevent terrorism.

So why aren’t more Americans outraged?

Clarke said that they’re too tied up with their economic situation and just trying to get by.

“It’s those immediate concerns that affect the economic security, financial security of families and businesses,” Clarke said. “Those are at the foremost right now.”

Clarke said that the recent revelations by NSA leaker Edward Snowden are concerning.

“Our constitution protects us from being monitored by our government without probable cause,” Clarke said. “This is the greatest concern that I have right now — is that the federal government is able to collect all of our personal information, our phone records, what we are doing on the internet — without having any probable cause that we may be involved with terrorism.”

Clarke, a Democrat who represented District 13 in Michigan’s Congress for two years, is seeking office in a neighboring district.

“I don’t think that our phone records should be monitored, I don’t think that our internet usage should be monitored as well, unless the government can demonstrate to a judge that it has probable cause and belief that a person who the government intends to monitor is involved in a terrorist plot,” Clarke said.